awards

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Will Be 2018 Recipient of Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus Will Be 2018 Recipient of Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Already, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of our most beloved comedic actors just from her roles on Seinfeld and Veep alone and is well deserving of a bust of Mark Twain in this regard. One has to wonder if Seinfeld and Veep alums/cast members will show up and do related bits at the upcoming ceremony.

Also, as far as the Mark Twain Prize is concerned, 2018 will be noted for having Julia Louis-Dreyfus winning and it being the year that Bill Cosby had his Mark Twain Prize stripped from him.

Morris From America, Swiss Army Man, and The Intervention Win at 2016 Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition

February 1, 2016

awards, daniel kwan, daniel radcliffe, daniel scheinhart, intervention, markees christmas, melanie lynskey, morris from america, sundance, swiss army man

Yes, what’s been described as the farting corpse movie won an award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

In fact, plenty of news outlets reported of numerous walk outs during the screening of Swiss Army Man starring Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano, which does indeed feature farting corpses. Those walk outs didn’t stop directors Daniel Scheinhart and Daniel Kwan from winning a directing award.

The cross country coming-of-age story Morris From America featuring Markees Christmas, who got his start at Channel 101, was honored with the Waldo Screenwriting Award (given to writer Chad Hartigan) and Special Jury Award for Individual Performance for Markees.

Dramedy, The Intervention, also got a Special Jury Award for Individual Performance that went to Melanie Lynskey.

Hopefully, all of these films will get a much wider distribution than the typical limited indie release and we’ll all have a chance to go see what was the talk of Park City.

Watch Amy Schumer’s GLAMOUR Trailblazer Award Acceptance Speech That’s Heartfelt and Goes Very Blue

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See the type of fun you can have when you don’t put awards shows on a telecast?

Amy Schumer continues making 2015 her year with not only a GLAMOUR magazine Trailblazer Award win, but a speech that hits home why she won. She stands up for women, body positivity, breaking down stereotypes and does all of that while saying something that many standards and practices departments would have a field day with.

Watch Amy’s speech here.

“Grand Budapest Hotel”, “Louie”, “Last Week Tonight”, “High Maintenance” More Win at WGA Awards

February 15, 2015

awards, golden globes, grand budapest hotel, high maintenance, how i met your mother, last week tonight, louie, louis ck, simpsons, wga

The 2015 WGA Awards were handed out last night and the field of winners seems to be raising the least amount of snub talk this awards season. This might have something to do with critical powerhouses like Grand Budapest Hotel and Louie won as well as well-received upstarts like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and High Maintenance on Vimeo winning statues.

Here’s all the comedy winners for this year’s WGA Awards:

–The Grand Budapest Hotel, Screenplay by Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness-Original Screenplay
–Louie, Written by Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.-Comedy Series, Episodic Comedy
–High Maintenance, Written by Katja Blichfeld & Ben Sinclair-Short Form New Media
–The Simpsons, “Brick Like Me”, Written by Brian Kelley-Animated
–Last Week Tonight, Writers: Kevin Avery, Tim Carvell, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, John Oliver, Scott Sherman, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Juli Weiner-Comedy/Variety (Including Talk)-Series
–71st Annual Golden Globes Awards, Written by Barry Adelman; Special Material by Alex Baze, Dave Boone, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Jon Macks, Sam Means, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Mike Shoemaker-Comedy/Variety-Music, Awards, Tributes-Specials
–How I Met Your Mother, Written by Dan Greenberger-On-Air Promotion (TV, New Media, or Radio)

See the full list of winners here.

Iñárritu and Soloway Win at DGA Awards

February 8, 2015

alejandro gonzález iñárritu, awards, birdman, dga, jill soloway, transparent

Comedy continues to fare quite well this awards season with movies like Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Grand Budapest Hotel as well as shows like Transparent leading the way.

Last night The Directors Guild of America handed out their annual awards and Alejandro González Iñárritu took home the DGA Award for Feature Film and his work on Birdman while Jill Soloway took home the award for Comedy Series and her work on Transparent.

Hopefully, the ceiling for comedy getting notoriety during awards seasons is slowly cracking.

See the full list of DGA Awards winners for this year here.

WGA Awards Movie Nominees: Her, The Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska, and More

January 3, 2014

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WGA Awards Movie Nominees: Her, The Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska, and More

The Writers Guild of America just announced their nominees for movies including dramadies, comedic dramas, dramatic comedies, dramas with really funny moments in it, etc. Her, The Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska, American Hustle, Blue Jasmine, and more.

That only leaves us thinking “Still, no love for In A World…, It’s A Disaster, or Wrong Cops/Wrong.”

The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, and More Genre Amalgamates with Comedy in Them Nominated at PGAs

January 2, 2014

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The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, and More Genre Amalgamates with Comedy in Them Nominated at PGAs

We guess the debate will continue on whether The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Nebraska, and American Hustle have enough comedic moments to be considered a comedy or even a comedy hybrid or whether to dismiss the whole notion of genre altogether in awarding movies and just recognizing the truly best pictures.

The four aforementioned movies just got nominated for the Producer’s Guild Awards and seem to be the closest that comedy will get serious recognition. With that being said, Bradley Cooper and Louis C.K. in American Hustle are pretty f’n hilarious.

Channel 101 Does One Hell of An Awards Show Intro

December 14, 2013

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Annually, Channel 101 holds the Channy Awards recognizing excellence within the vast community that is now Channel 101, the ongoing collective of non televised short form TV shows founded by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab.

With that in mind, the latest Channy Awards intro speaks to that spirit of being funny, innovative, niche (you might want to watch this year’s shows at Channel 101 to get all the jokes), and, unfortunately non-televised.

W. Kamau Bell To Host WGA East Awards

December 9, 2013

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W. Kamau Bell To Host WGA East Awards

W. Kamau Bell is getting set to host his 2nd time on TV with this upcoming WGA East Awards. Let’s keep Kamau going with a 3rd, 4th, and 5th time, and so on.

Also, in remembering Jonathan Ames hosting last year’s WGA Awards, does the WGA like having hosts who just got their shows cancelled?

And Here Are The 2013 Channel 101 Channy Nominations

November 30, 2013

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And Here Are The 2013 Channel 101 Channy Nominations

Among all the nominations coming up this award season, you might have overlooked the ones for the awesome homegrown talent known and seen here in LA in Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab’s Channel 101.

There were so many great short form programs such as Car Jumper, Marquis Vs., Baby Mentalist, and more that graced the screen of the Downtown Independent as well as the screens of many a laptop connected to the Internet.

Details on the actual awards ceremony, but now enjoy the list of nominees that includes such categories as copyright infringement.

The Andy Kaufman Awards are Now Taking Submissions For This Year

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The Andy Kaufman Awards are Now Taking Submissions For This Year

What should be one of the more notable comedy contests/award ceremonies in comedy, The Andy Kaufman Awards, for their recognizing the likes of Reggie Watts, Brent Weinbach, Kristen Schaal, Nick Vatterott, and more is now taking submissions for the 2013 edition.

Whatever your thoughts on Andy Kaufman are, know that this is one of our favorite comedy competitions to keep an eye on, so enter if you’re remotely interested in doing anything slightly different in comedy.

Comedy Winners for Critics’ Choice Television Awards

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Comedy Winners for Critics’ Choice Television Awards

Not to be confused with the Television Critics’ Association Awards, The Critics’ Choice Television Awards were just presented and gave honors to some of our favorite shows.

Louis CK won Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Louie, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Veep, The Daily Show won Best Talk Show, Archer won Best Animated Show, and, possibly the least surprising, Patton Oswalt won Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for his wonderful role on Parks and Recreation.

Check the full list of winners at the link.

TCA Awards Nominees Are What You’d Expect

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TCA Awards Nominees Are What You’d Expect

Louie, Girls, Veep, and Parks and Recreation all garner nominations for the upcoming Television Critics Association Awards as well semi-family animated program Adventure Time.

Only surprise is that all Program of the Year nominees are dramas.

Nominate Some Comedy for The 2013 LA Weekly Web Awards

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Nominate Some Comedy for The 2013 LA Weekly Web Awards

The LA Weekly is doing another round of their annual web awards that could be very well decided by you. Ranging from blogs to Twitter accounts to podcasts and web series, there are plenty of comedy related categories that you could nominate and highlight amongst the vast comedy scene her in Los Angeles.

Click the link to nominate and we’d hope that you’d also vote for us as far as blogs are concerned.

Will Ferrell to Receive Comic Genius Award at MTV Movie Awards

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Will Ferrell to Receive Comic Genius Award at MTV Movie Awards

This being the MTV Movie Awards and another distinguished award honoring the comedy of Will Ferrell, we wonder whether he’ll do something more fantastic than dropping his Mark Twain Prize.

LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival Recap: Days 3 and 4 + Awards

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After well over 100 comedy short films have graced the screen of the Downtown Independent Theater, complete with plenty of laughter and applause, The 4th Annual LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival has come to a close. The blocks of films from days 3 and 4 along with the fascinating panels of comedy stars and comedy new media (Funny or Die, College Humor, and more) rounded out the second half of the festival just as well as the first half. On top of that, the festival had a legitimate awards ceremony hosted by Alonzo Bodden worthy of much bigger film festivals such as Tribeca, as presenter David Higgins (The Wrong Guy) initially “thought” it was when presenting an award.

Here’s a quick rundown of what happened for days 3 and 4 and the awards presentation:

-The “short” short (under 5 min.) still proved to be the crowd favorites as well as some of the films we enjoyed the most. Christopher Larsen’s Jesus Doppelganger (a man has to decide which Jesus to shoot) and Jeremy Brull’s Honourable Discharge (a infantry man’s fiance gets the worst news she could get) played their one joke brilliantly to uproarious laughter.

-Many of the shorts nailed the note of sheer absurdity. Award winner Speruchet Pan Tournegos by Stephen Cedars, Benji Kleiman, and Scott Yacyshyn, a sort-of absurd revenge action pho-drama, was intentionally done in a completely made-up language (we apologize in advance if it was an obscure Eastern European dialect that was being spoken). Frequent character in Christopher Guest films John Michael Higgins played an absolutely ridiculous cross-dressing therapist in Dave Rock’s very funny People People. Matt Smulker’s Hiccup also deserves a mention here for leading the audience down that path of a road movie that stops abruptly at the out-of-nowhere twist, which we’re not going to give away (just trust us, it was damn funny).

-There was a celebrity panel on Saturday morning of Carlos Alazraqui, EG Daily, Niecy Nash, John Michael Higgins, and Yeardley Smith, which was especially fascinating considering John Michael Higgins revealed that he wasn’t a big fan of doing improv and Yeardley Smith has been acting right out of high school all the way to her current job on The Simpsons.

-At the new media panel, featuring Funny or Die, College Humor, Fremantle Media, and Break Media, it was absolutely startling and engrossing to hear that they all collectively fear agents and unions more so than CISPA or SOPA.

–Other memorable quotes from the New Media Panel:
“We hope to contribute something to it and the story to hopefully make it not so much about dick jokes, when it’s really about boob jokes.” –Matt Johnson, Fremantle Media, Atomic Wedgie TV
“I know how to make a viral video: fake celebrity sex videos.” –Ally Hord, Funny or Die
“We’re hoping the over-40 demographic will die real soon. It’s a big part of our business plan.” –Spencer Griffin, College Humor

-We heard Funny or Die on HBO is in season 3 of production and the second season of Billy on the Street on FUSE is on its way.

-Something you probably won’t get to see at many other film festivals that was great to see at LA Comedy Shorts was webisodes. David Morgasen’s David Blaine’s Street Magic (spoof of Blaine’s street magic), Hayden Black’s Goodnite Burbank (an attempt at local news in Burbank out of a garage), and Jon Stahl’s Teechers (The Office meets an elementary school) [which should be a web series] gave a great look into the possibilities reality of episodic comedy on the web.

-Dark comedy had an interesting showing during the festival. Both Bob Ray’s Sacked and Darrell C. Hazelrig’s The Dark Companion really walked the line quite cleverly of not being a gritty drama by having puppets be the subject to psychological afflictions or gruesome murder and revenge. James Logan’s Terminator: Termination also pulled the humor off quite well by its spoof of Terminator featuring a toy robot.

Thugs the Musical Trailer

–The Winners of the 2012 LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival Awards
Commie Award (Honorary Award in Comedic Excellence)-Scott Thompson
Best Comedy Short Script-Mary & Louise-Amy Staats
Best Half-Hour Pilot-Rooster & Sons-Drew Mackintosh
Best Comedy Feature Script-White’s Trash-Gregory Porter
Best Animated Comedy Short-Stuper Powers-Rise of the Chipmunk-Greg Bro
Best Comedy Student Film-Mr. Bear-Andres Rosende
Best Comedy Short Shortie (5 min. and under)-Comedy Jam-Bryan Robbins
Best Comedy Short-Speruchet Pan Tournegos by Stephen Cedars, Benji Kleiman, and Scott Yacyshyn
Audience Award-Thugs the Musical-Kevin Avery
State Tax Credit Exchange’s Best of Fest-The Immigrant-Josh Levy

Last Chance to Vote for the Scoomies!!!

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That’s right folks, forget about the top of the comedy world giving itself a high five at the Comedy Awards, vote for the up n’ comers trying to cut in the LA comedy scene by Mon. Mar. 28th, specifically at the long standing Westwood Brew Co. Open Mic for the Scoomies. Send votes to Vance Sanders via Facebook message after the link.

Here’s the ballot:

1. Jewiest Non-Jew

2. Best Newcomer

3. Most Prolific

4. The Facebook Award

5. Best Anger

6. Too Much Information Award

7. Gleest

8. More Open Mics in a Week Than You Do in a Month

9. The Heavy Meta Award

10. Most Distinctive Laugh

11. Most Twitter in Set

12. Best Cornell Reid-Like Outfit

13. Best Husband

14. Best Wife

15. The Hair Award – Head or Facial

16. Most Likely to Replace Charlie Sheen on “Two and a Half Men”

17. Most Gendered

18. Surprised to Find Yourself Sexually Attracted to Them

19. Warmest, Kindest, Lovingest Care Bear Award

20. Best Writer

21. Always Makes Me Laugh Guy ( Vote for 3)

1. ____________________________________

2.____________________________________

3.____________________________________

22. Always makes me laugh Lady( Vote for 3)

1. ____________________________________

2.____________________________________

3.____________________________________

23. Favorite Joke or Routine( Vote for 3)

1. ____________________________________

2.____________________________________

3.____________________________________